I have not had time to finish my blogs from our trip to Newfoundland and here I am clear on the other side of the country, in British Columbia. From one side of the country to another in less than a month. Some people talk about the need to go on a low carb diet. I need to go on a low carbon diet. Work brings me here but there is also time for relaxation. Pictures thereof to follow when I get back home -- I am here with the Rebel and a laptop but no patch cable. No patch, no pix.
Truthfully, I am glad that I have no pictures of part of yesterday's experience. I had made a reservation at Salt Tasting Room, a trendy resto serving local charcuterie, artisanal cheeses, and BC wines. One of my favorite kinds of meals. It's on a street called Blood Alley (named for its known history as the location of 19th century butcher shops and its perhaps more imagined history as the site of public executions)on the edge of the Downtown East Side. The poorest postal code zone in Canada, with desperately high rates of drug addiction, violent crime, prostitution, alienation and pure human misery. Only on the edge of it, and I felt unsure, out of place, and afraid. I don't think I have ever seen that level or magnitude of poverty and desperation before, not even in Toronto, where there are plenty of poor and addicted people. We have plenty of violent and poor neighbourhoods. But I don't know if they are as abject as this.
I was probably just fine on my way to Salt; I could have made my way there, enjoyed my meal and found my way back out to the cleaner, safer, wealthier part of the city just fine.
But I didn't, and I don't think I will forget that feeling of being on the edge anytime soon.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
You write with such voice - I could feel your fear.
Yes, I was afraid but I also felt that I was trespassing -- I did not belong there. And to be going there for an expensive meal seemed horribly perverse. Unfortunately that it happening, writ large, all over Vancouver. The poor are being displaced so the better-off can have nice meals and glass-walled condos.
Post a Comment